Mistakes
by ronniekins77
Summary: Ray's just found out Neela is getting married so he confronts her about it. Missing moment from 12:9 - I Do. Written during the 12th season of the show.


"Hey, Ray, are you coming?" Abby said to him as she handed him a chart.

"To what?" he asked, flipping through the pages of the chart.

"To Neela's wedding," Abby said, as if this should be obvious.

At that moment, Ray dropped the chart. He scrambled to pick it up, then leaned against the counter for support. "Her what now?"

"Gallant proposed to her this morning. They're getting married today. I guess you didn't hear the rumors."

Ray grinned. "You're, uh, you're kidding, right?"

"No. They're holding it upstairs."

"This has got to be some kind of mistake..." Ray muttered.

"Abby, we need you over here!" yelled Sam, waving her over.

Ray stood there for a couple of minutes, completely shell shocked. She was getting married? What the hell? How was that even possible? She'd had one kiss and one night with this guy - and now they were tying the knot? Why was Neela being so stupid?

Where the hell was she anyway? 

Just as he thought it, she appeared. "Hey, Ray," she said.

He waved the chart around angrily. "Hey, Neela."

She looked at him. "What's wrong, Ray?"

"Were you going to tell me?" he spat out.

"Tell you -"

"That you're getting married!" he cut her off. "Neela, why are you doing this? You don't even love the guy!"

"Excuse me?" Neela retorted, throwing down her own chart.

"A couple of weeks ago, you were saying you didn't even know if he was technically your boyfriend. You've been in an actual relationship for how long exactly? Not to mention that most of that relationship you never even saw him. Now you're marrying him? Come on, Neela."

Neela looked as if she had just been slapped in the face. "I do love him, Ray, not that it's any of your damn business."

"What's his favorite food?"

"I don't know."

"Does he sleep with his socks on? Does he drink out of the carton? What's his favorite TV show? What topping does he like on his pizza?"

"Oh God, you're turning into Abby. Just come off it, _please_, I don't need to deal with this today," she said angrily, turning away from him.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. "What, you don't know?"

"Just because I don't know those things doesn't mean I can't learn them."

"You'd know them if you really, _really_ loved him," Ray said softly.

"Oh, bugger off, Ray!" she yelled, wrenching her arm away. "Your only experience of love was with a bloody fourteen year old girl. Don't talk to me about love, okay?"

Ray bowed his head. Neela stared at him for a moment and began to walk away. His voice stopped her. "You don't have a favorite food. You do sleep with your socks on sometimes. You drink out of the carton when I'm not home, but you get annoyed when other people do it. Your favorite show is World Poker Tour." He paused. "Pepperoni is your favorite topping."

"What?" Neela said.

"Neela," Ray said, a pleading note in his voice, "I'm just your friend and I know that stuff about you. And I can bet you anything you know the same things about me. You and Gallant don't know anything about each other."

"Ray, I can learn."

He grabbed her arm again. "Why?"

Neela sighed. "Look, if this is about you being worried about me moving out and you having to pay rent all by yourself, you don't have to. I'm not moving out."

"Oh, for God's sake, Neela, I don't care about rent! I care about you! You're making a huge mistake!"

"You're one to talk about mistakes," Neela said acidly, yanking her arm away.

"I just..." He stiffened, and his whole demeanor changed. "Fine," he said angrily. "Go ahead. Marry him if that's what'll make you happy. _I_ know it won't make you happy, but what the hell do I know? Besides everything about you, that is. Go on, Neela. Make your mistakes."

He slammed the chart he was holding in his hands down on the table and stormed away, leaving Neela standing there and receiving quite a few looks.

She took off after him. When she caught up with him, Neela pushed him into the wall. Hard. Ray stared down at her, pissed off and very much in love with her, and yelled, "What?"

"Ray," she said. "You were never just my friend. And maybe this is a mistake with Gallant, but I don't care. Life is a bunch of mistakes. And I can deal with that. But the one mistake I just can't deal with is you. Because if we were together and then it turned out to be wrong, I couldn't live with myself."

And with that, she walked away - and made her mistake.

But somehow Ray knew she'd come back to him. And when she did, it wouldn't be a mistake. 


End file.
